The subject matter disclosed herein relates to a system for diverting a portion of the heat rejected from a low pressure (LP) steam turbine to a feedwater heater. Specifically, the subject matter disclosed herein relates to a system for diverting a portion of the heat rejected from an LP steam turbine to a heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) via a feedwater heater.
Some power plant systems, for example, certain combined cycle (CC) power plant systems employ air-cooled condensers ACC(s) as the heat sink(s) for rejecting heat from an LP steam turbine's exhaust stream. ACCs provide gas-to-gas cooling of heat rejected from a turbine exhaust stream, which may reduce or eliminate the need for water from the condensing cycle. However, ACCs are typically large, costly apparatuses, which can yield high back-pressures that decrease the efficiency and output of the LP steam turbine (and the overall system).